Our websites may use cookies to personalize and enhance your experience. By continuing without changing your cookie settings, you agree to this collection. For more information, please see our University Websites Privacy Notice.

Students learn about science, conservation and culture on Belize research trip

White sand, palm trees, wooden huts and snorkeling are part of many students’ dreams of a perfect spring break.

But receiving college credit and learning something new in the meantime? That would be a dream come true.

Fourteen students at UConn’s Avery Point campus did just this in March, when they spent a week on the half-mile-long, 200-foot-wide island of South Water Caye off the coast of Belize. Associated with of marine scientist Peter Auster’s three-credit marine ecology course titled Reef Fishes, the one-credit study abroad trip is an optional laboratory component meant to bring students out of the classroom and into the habitat of a coral reef.

“Being next to a fish and watching it eat — you can’t ever experience that feeling unless you’re actually there,” says Megan Thompson, a sophomore marine sciences major and anthropology minor.

Unlike classroom lectures and even most laboratory classes, Auster’s course takes students into the natural classroom at a field research station, owned by the non-profit International Zoological Expeditions and located in the largest marine protected area in Belize. The station sits on the Meso-American Barrier Reef, second in size worldwide only to the Great Barrier Reef off Australia.

Here, instead of performing laboratory experiments dictated by a laboratory manual, students design and carry out their own research investigations. After they return to the Avery Point campus, students analyze data, interpret results and present their findings in a class symposium, just like a professional scientific meeting — complete with coffee and donuts to authenticate the experience, jokes Auster.

However, he says, there is more to the trip than just conducting research.

“The least-addressed part of teaching the scientific method to students is observing nature and asking questions,” says Auster. “In addition to conducting their own research projects, the students spend time essentially just looking around, but with a scientific eye, looking at how fish make their living in the ocean, finding food and avoiding becoming food for others. They make primary observations and then ask testable questions. They document these observations and questions in a journal that is part of their grade.”

“You can sit in a classroom forever,” adds senior marine sciences major Britta LeMontagne. “But eventually you have to get out there and deal with problems as they arise.”

The class focuses on fishes that live on tropical coral reefs, including their evolutionary adaptations, species interactions like competition and predation and conservation. The class is open to students in any year, from freshmen to graduate students, as long as they can keep up with the scientific nature of the course.

The benefit of this diversity of students, says Auster, is that they can learn from one another. The course is structured to enhance peer teaching, he says, and gives students a chance to incorporate a diversity of perspectives that come from their own knowledge and experience.

“Not only are these students all at different levels, but their majors are different too,” says Auster. “Someone might know a lot about basic ecology, while someone else would know about statistics. They have the common bond of helping each other define the problem.”

Many of the students, including Thompson and senior marine sciences major Jerry Coyne, also found the cultural experience to be at once shocking and edifying. The marine protection act that created the marine sanctuary also forbids fishing in areas that have been worked by local fishermen for generations, leaving many without work. A conversation with their ferryboat captain, says Coyne, showed him that there are two sides to any conservation story.

“He still has knowledge of the area, so he was able to get a job as a boat captain, but it’s tough for people to get those kinds of jobs,” says Coyne of the Belize native. “We really got a perspective of natural resources management in general.”

Coyne hopes to pursue a career in aquaculture farming, and Thompson wants to work toward understanding how the environment and its preservation matter to different cultures. LeMontagne will pursue a master’s degree in environmental science at Alaska Pacific University and plans to contribute to environmental policy decisions by communicating scientific knowledge to non-scientists.

As for Auster, he says that after many years of instructing, he still loves teaching this class.

“It’s refreshing and reinvigorating for me to see the world through the students’ eyes,” he says. “Even if they never do science again after leaving UConn, I want them each to walk away with an appreciation for the diversity of life in the oceans. This can translate into the decisions they make on almost a daily basis, like the seafood they buy, businesses they support, where they live and work, and how they vote.”

Both the classroom and study abroad courses were open to the Department of Marine Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Students received partial support for the costs of the course from an Avery Point Scholarship funded by the Kitchings Family Fund and a subsidy from the Office of Study Abroad.

Join us for a talk by Gina Barreca,2018 UCONN BOARD OF TRUSTEESDISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH

All great works of fiction, poetry and dramaâas well as texts forming mythologies, religions, national epics to heroic sagasâhave loneliness at the heart of their narrative. From Persephone to Peter Pan, from âFrankensteinâ to âFrozen,â the stories we pass along are saturated with unwilling isolation.âOnly around half of Americans say they have meaningful, daily face-to-face social interactions,â according to a 2017 study. A former U.S. Surgeon General argues that âWe live in the most technologically connected age in the history of civilization, yet rates of loneliness have doubled since the 1980s.â We need more than social media. We need social contact. We need community. How can we break through the loneliness barrier? Being alone when in need of companionship is more than sad; itâs an epidemic.Chronic loneliness is as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes per day. We need to change our national story and, often, our personal ones as well.Even the concept of the âlone wolfâ is a myth. Wolves hunt in packs.

Reception to follow.

For more information about this event, or if you are an individual who requires special accommodation to participate, please contact the CLAS Deanâs Office at (860) 486-2713.

A liberal arts and sciences degree prepares students with the tools they need to excel across a wide range of careers. Given the number of options available to you, it can be overwhelming to narrow down career choices. Attending CLAS Career Night will provide you exposure to career opportunities for CLAS students.

This semesterâs focus will be on research-based careers. During this event you will engage with CLAS alumni, learn about various occupations, and gain insight about how to best prepare for your future career.

The McNair Scholars Program and the Office of Undergraduate Research invite you to join us for a brown bag research seminar.

Birds, Bacteria, and Bioinformatics: Why Evolutionary Biology is the Best

Sarah Hird, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology

This series is open to all undergraduate and graduate students, and is designed especially for students conducting (or interested in conducting) STEM research. These seminars are opportunities to learn about research being pursued around campus, to talk with faculty about their path into research, and to ask questions about getting involved in research.

About CLAS

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is the academic core of learning and research at UConn. We are committed to the full spectrum of academics across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. We give students a liberal arts and sciences education that empowers them with broad knowledge, transferable skills, and an ability to think critically about important issues across a variety of disciplines.